


In The Limelight

by smileyarmy



Category: Glee, blangst - Fandom
Genre: Blangst, Bullying, Fat Shaming, M/M, Self Confidence Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-31
Updated: 2014-08-31
Packaged: 2018-02-15 14:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2233146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smileyarmy/pseuds/smileyarmy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt is a famous fashion designer and Blaine is his boyfriend, and also 10 years younger. Blaine is constantly getting hate messages and so has gone as far as deleting twitter and Facebook. They start putting his hate mail in letters and one day Kurt is awoken to soft crying and torch light where Blaine is reading. He reads them too and he spends the night posting several messages to accounts called things like “hate-blaine” and “kurtdeservesbetter” telling them how he just woke to sobbing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In The Limelight

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from blangstpromptoftheday from umblangst on Tumblr.

Everyone who was anyone in the fashion world had heard of Kurt Hummel. It was impossible not to have heard of him, the industry raved about his out of the box styles and his ability to weave a whole fashion line to fit or even precede the latest trend. He was the best, his clothing sold for hundreds if not thousands of dollars depending on what it was. He enjoyed his work, each design reflected something in his life, from his deceased Mother, to his Father and most of all, his boyfriend Blaine.

Blaine Anderson was a barely 20 singer who Kurt had met by accident at a coffee shop. Kurt heard the singer and fell in love, Blaine had the voice of an angel and he actually knew quite a lot about fashion. He helped Kurt on projects, secretly though as Blaine didn't want to be in that spotlight. He wasn't as emotionally strong as Kurt, wasn't able to stand in front of a whole load of people and talk about his fashion choices.

Kurt liked having Blaine around, it was grounding, seeing someone who wanted to be in front of a crowd, but only a small one. Blaine only wanted to make art and help people, he was okay with being behind the curtain as opposed to in front with Kurt. It was how they worked, Kurt helped Blaine by being supportive of him and trying to build up some confidence in him while Blaine grounded Kurt and made sure he didn't fly too far to the sun.

When they'd first got together, the tabloids were all over the story.

_Kurt Hummel on date with mystery man._

_Blaine Anderson revealed as Kurt Hummel's boyfriend._

_Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson watch the catwalk together_

But with every good story that surface, bad ones floated up too.

_Blaine Anderson 15 pound weight gain._

_Sing a bad note Blaine?_

_Blaine Anderson with no gel is a hell no._

They both had known the risk of Blaine being pulled into the spotlight with Kurt, he'd get attacked as he wasn't famous, he was simply famous by association. But they were willing to ignore that simply for the need to be with each other. Kurt made sure to show just how much he loved Blaine, they kissed in public, Kurt named a fashion line after him and he had more plans to go to get Blaine to the level of celebrity that Kurt's fans thought he should be before even thinking of dating Kurt.

\----

"A photoshoot?" Blaine asked, lowering his Vogue Magazine to look directly at Kurt. Kurt wanted him to be the model for the Blaine A. Fashion line, since it was all inspired by Blaine's attire. It was an idea that Blaine wasn't _fully_ happy about, since it meant having his photo taken by lots of men who could judge him on his outfit choice, on how it looked on him. Since he saw the headline about his weight, he'd become very self concious about it, much to Kurt's dismay.

"Yes! Come on, you're perfect to be the model and I wouldn't have anyone else in the world showcase it" Kurt sat down on the sofa with him, linking Blaine's free hand with his own and rubbing small circles across his knuckles. Kurt wasn't only trying to get Blaine's image up, he was trying to get Blaine's _self image_ up, he hated seeing his boyfriend have to look around when they're eating out to see if someone will see his burger or his salad.

"But you have tons of models who it'd work for...what about Sam? Or Noah? Finn would be a stretch, but he'd be better then me" Blaine was grasping at straws, he didn't want to give the public more ammo to use against him. They already thought he was putting on weight, pictures of him in Kurt's wares might make them believe even more that he can't control his weight.

"Sam doesn't have the body shape, it wouldn't suit Noah and I'm pretty sure we don't have any in Finn's size. _Please_ Blaine, trust me, you'll look amazing and I want people to see my fabulous, _hot as hell_ boyfriend exactly the way _I_ see him. Perfect in every way" Kurt leaned over to kiss Blaine's jaw, leaving a trail of kisses down his neck. He was rewarded with the gasp he had been looking for and the tension melting away from Blaine's shoulders.

"But you know how I feel abo-"

"Yes and you know how I feel about you putting yourself down. You're amazing Blaine, your voice is like an earth bound angel, you look like one too and I wish that you could see it" Kurt knew he'd won when he saw the look in Blaine's eye that usually came out when Kurt wanted to watch Project Runway while Blaine was watching Doctor Who and Blaine let Kurt watch his show.

"Fine, I'll do it" Blaine sighed, there wasn't any way around it. Kurt could be stubborn when he wanted his way and Blaine found it easier not to fight every single time. He'd seen the fashion line, he loved it and he just hoped that the audience loved it on him.

\----

The shoot went well, at least from Kurt's point of view. 

Blaine felt like he'd been forced into hell for a few hours.

He hadn't been ready for the sheer muscle and hotness that the models had. He'd felt so out of place, having his photo taken in Kurt's clothing while the other models watched him. He could almost _hear_ their thoughts over how inferior he was compared to them. He'd been happy to leave and hide back at home with Kurt and a season of Sex In The City.

The pictures looked good, Blaine had really captured the essence of the line, which wasn't hard considering that it was based on his wardrobe. The pictures were already online, Blaine A. was going live as they left, streaming to every computer in the country first before crossing to others.

While Kurt was excited, Blaine was not.

Blaine didn't want anyone to see his pictures, his insecurities were warring inside of him with the self confidence that Kurt had helped him build during their relationship. What if the fat people thought he had was actually there? What if he wasn't smiling like a normal human? These questions were at the front of his mind and that scared him a lot. He just wanted to be normal, someone who wasn't on the cover of very gossip magazine or front lining something. Was it too much to ask for ordinary?

He didn't say this to Kurt, because his boyfriend had that smile on his face that was only reserved for him. His _I'm so proud of you_ smile that danced in his eyes and lit up his whole face. Blaine wouldn't do anything to stop that smile.

How bad could it be?

\----

As it turned out, very bad.

Blaine logged onto his Twitter, something Kurt had said he /had/ to get, a few days after the photos had been released. He could see that his follower count went up, since Kurt and him tweeted while they were out and about and too lazy to text. He noticed there was more mentions of his name and stupidly decided to look.

_@kurtdeservesbetter: @BANDerson Why can't you leave Kurt already?_ was a slap to the face.

_@hate-blaine: @BANDerson You'd think dating a fashion designer you'd know weight control #losetheweight_ was a punch to the gut.

_@dieblainedie: @BANDerson Just disappear, no-one will miss you #truth_ was a stab to the heart.

He hadn't realized he was crying until a drop landed on his phone screen. He scanned through the rest, a weird sense of morbid fascination with the tweets all saying one basic thing. _He wasn't good enough for Kurt._

He didn't know what to think, what to do. He couldn't tell Kurt, he'd get angry, do something reckless and ruin his reputation. Blaine might not like being in the spotlight, but Kurt belonged there and Blaine wasn't going to be the one to stop him.

He wasn't planning on leaving Kurt, he was just going to ignore them and hope they go away. It's only the internet, it isn't real.

\----

Over the next few weeks, the tweets became too much and Blaine deleted his account. He explained it to Kurt that he felt insecure with all the bullies out there that /could/ attack him and Kurt let him do it. Kurt didn't need to know that they already were attacking him.

He also didn't say why he deleted his Facebook was for the same reason, one fan had found his account and spread it to the others. The constant messages and comments left by people who didn't like him with Kurt were wearing away at his heart and his soul. He just wanted it to end, wanted it to _stop._

He barely went outside any more, claiming to his work that he was feeling ill, that he'd caught some 24 hour bug that was lasting for a week at a time. That his non-existent cat had died and he had to bury it. He'd even used the excuse that he was going somewhere with Kurt, even though Kurt was unaware of this.

It was tiring, he'd even started getting _mail_ concerning how he wasn't worth enough to be Kurt's boyfriend, to even exist. He couldn't sleep as each comment was burned into his brain, running laps in his head. Round and round, like clockwork.

He stayed up into the early hours of the morning, reading over each and every hand-written insult, every single typed threat on his life shoved into a too small envelope, the stamp stuck just on the envelope. The cries of a mad man/woman being sent to someone who is living the life that the mad mind wants to live.

He's becoming a madman, his mind a warrior of self hatred.

He doesn't know when it's going to end.

\---

It ended a week later, on a Monday night. Well, technically a Tuesday morning, but Kurt counts it as the night as the sun hasn't come up. That's the first thing that confuses him, it's still dark outside and the reassuring heat of his boyfriend isn't permeating his side. Usually Blaine refused to get up and ended up koalaing him whenever he was awake because _it's too early._

It is disorientating and scary, a fear that his boyfriend was lying on the floor of their apartment injured catapulted him to full awareness. It was silly, but he was famous and he wasn't blind, he knew that Blaine wasn't a fan favourite. They wanted him to be with Sam if anyone, not that he would. Sam was straight and while he was hot, he wasn't Blaine. No-one could give him what Blaine did. Blaine gave him his soul, everything in him went with every gesture and he thrived on it. He sat up, eyes scanning the room before seeing a small amount of light under the door.

It was too small a light to be the main light, it wasn't flickering like a candle light would, it was strong but small. A torch.

Carefully he tip-toed out of his bed, because it could be a burglar and while that would be pretty impressive since he lived in a gated community away from the public, it was still dangerous. He slowly opened the door and peered round, feeling slightly better as he saw his boyfriend was the torch welder.

He was about to open his mouth when a sob from Blaine cut him off. It was the worst sound he'd ever heard from Blaine, it was almost silent except for a soft hitch as Blaine breathed. How long had Blaine been out there?

"Blaine?" He asked softly, not surprised when the younger boy jumped about four foot in the air. Blaine often got absorbed in things and zoned out.

"Kurt" He started, desperately trying to hide something behind his back.

"What are-are those letters?" Kurt asked carefully, pulling them from Blaine's grasp to see several folded up letters and one which had been crumpled, obviously the letter he had ebeen reading. Why would Blaine get letters? Anyone who knew Blaine well enough to send them had his number.

Blaine was silent as Kurt flicked one open.

_You better break up with Kurt now, before more things are drawn to your natural orbit, since you're fat enough to create one._

He opened another.

_If you disappeared, no-one would care._

A tear fell from his eyes as he opened another.

_Kurt deserves better._

He looked over at Blaine, seeing just how _tired_ Blaine looked. How anyone could send such horrible things to Blaine was beyond him. It was like they were ignoring how perfect his personality is.

"How long has this been going on?" He asked softly, if he raised his voice, he knew that Blaine would panic and think that he was mad at him. The younger boy was already on edge now, he didn't want to make it worse.

"A few weeks..." Blaine mumbled, curling into what Kurt had nicknamed his _puppy_ position. He pulled his legs up to his chest and rested his face behind his knees so only his eyes peered over the top. He looked like a kicked puppy.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to worry. It started on Facebook and Twitter, after the photoshoot. It just...got worse" He wasn't raising his voice over a whisper, afraid to anger Kurt, he could see anger burning behind his eyes.

"Blaine" Kurt started, "I'm so sorry, I'm going to fix it" Kurt promised, pulling Blaine into a hug which was hard considering he was curled up in a chair. He kissed Blaine's hair as Blaine relaxed into his embrace.

Kurt was going to make it all better.

\---

Kurt was beyond pissed, he hated every single person who had sent Blaine a horrible message. He'd found the other letters, read the Twitter posts and the Facebook pages all dedicated to making his boyfriend feel like crap.

He had wanted to protect Blaine, to build up his self esteem to finally accept how big he would be as a famous singer, which he was /totally/ going to be.

But some stupid fans had decided to wreck all Blaine's progress and he hated all of them for it. He had messaged several of the people publicly, not even caring how it would make him look and showing them just how pissed their idol was.

_@kurthummelfashion: @kurtdeservesbetter You should be ashamed of yourself. Blaine is an amazing human being and you've been basically bullying him. You make me sick._

Each message along those words made him feel less angry at them and he was sure Blaine had checked online to see them and was almost smiling because of it.

Kurt wasn't going to stand for bullying, especially when it was someone he loved. 

He'd kill for Blaine and if that meant blackballing several twitter accounts online so his actual fans attacked them, well that was just karma.


End file.
